JAKARTA: The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) expressed its optimism that the country’s exports would grow by 500 percent between 2025 to 2030 despite lower export volume recorded in August 2016 compared to the previous year.
Handito Joewono, Chairman of Kadin’s Permanent Committee on Export Development said that Indonesia’s total export value is estimated to reach US$150 billion by the end if 2016. Handito expected that the number will rise to US$750 billion within the next nine years. “A 500 percent increase in exports is not just mere statement, it can be achieved. We have created a roadmap for export development, which will be released tomorrow [Tuesday, September 27, 2016] and will be implemented nationwide,” Handito told a press conference in Jakarta on Monday, September 26, 2016.
In the roadmap, Kadin recommends five strategic pillars to accelerate progress towards achieving the target, namely increasing the number of exporters, diversification of export products, development of export market, improvement of average export prices and development of export ecosystem. Handito also underlined the importance of opening new markets as an alternative to traditional markets. Handito pointed out the ASEAN market as one of potential expansion target, which has become increasingly apparent following the implementation of the Asean Economic Community (AEC).
Indonesia’s export to three major Asean markets, namely Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, dropped by 0.46 percent, 14,7 percent and 6.09 percent in August 2016, respectively. On the contrary, export to other Asean countries significantly increased by 13.71 percent, from US$5,020.8 million to US$5.709.1 million. “The figure is similar to the total export to Singapore throughout January to August. Therefore, we may expect that Indonesia will reduce export dependence on Singapore and compensate it with exports to other Asean countries, namely the Philippines, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei,” Handito said.
